General Practice and family medicine

Dept. of General Practice and Family Medicine

Around eight out of ten patients visiting a general practitioner (GP) office have several chronic illnesses (multimorbidity). These patients are often seen by other physicians and health professionals and are treated with multiple medications (polypharmacy). Patients with multimorbidity are at increased risk of having acute illnesses (e.g. infectious diseases) frequently. Medical care for these patients is therefore time-consuming and often complicated.

The care for primary care patients with chronic diseases is a major area of research and educational activity at the Department of General and Family Medicine. Our goals are to explore new approaches to improve the care of these patients, to prepare medical students for their future careers in general practice, and to do our best to provide continuous education for general practitioners.

Key issues include supporting physicians and patients in shared decision making and improving the interaction between different specialists and health care professionals. The use of digital technologies also plays an important role in our research and educational activities.

The leader of the AG, Prof. Dr. med. Christiane Muth, MPH, brings her life-long experience of work on past and current research projects as well as her experience of work on clinical guidelines for general practitioners. During her career, Professor Muth has also been extensively involved in innovative interprofessional teaching.